Living Ideabook
The Living IDEABOOK is a digital extension of IDEABOOK: Libraries for Families.
The Living IDEABOOK is meant for anyone who works in a library setting — from library directors and children’s and youth librarians, to volunteers and support staff — and is meant to be used as a continuing resource for designing a family engagement system. As a digital learning hub, the Living IDEABOOK:
- Offers a research-based framework to guide libraries’ work in family engagement.
- Constantly highlights new and innovative practices occurring in libraries and out-of-school children’s learning environments
- Shares many innovative ways that libraries support and guide families in children’s learning and development, inspiring libraries to try new ideas
- Creates a dialogue within and among libraries and communities in order to bring about well-planned family engagement programs.
The Living IDEABOOK will help librarians think about what they do with families in new ways. It will inspire fresh ideas and show how isolated activities can be part of a more intentional family engagement system. As explored in the companion publication, Public Libraries: A Vital Space for Family Engagement, the work libraries do can improve outcomes for children, youth, and families in a variety of areas, including brain development, language and literacy, reading abilities, mathematical skills, social and emotional learning, and literacy in a digital world.
